Local Leaders Head to Albany for Our Fair Share

By the time you read this on this frigid Monday, I'll be headed to Albany with a few of my favorite people.

It's time for the annual trek by the Community Coalition to try to get the Rochester's fair share. On the trip are the usual suspects: Sandy Parker from RBA of course, and Presidents Joel Seligman of U. of R. and Bill Destler of RIT. Then there's Jennifer Leonard, able head of the Rochester Community Foundation, the ubiquitous and highly effective Mark Peterson of Greater Rochester Enterprises, and of course, Peter Robinson from the U of R Medical Center -- ever the forceful advocate. We'll be joined in Albany by our tireless County Executive Maggie Brooks, and the newcomer to the trip -- Mayor Lovely Warren, fresh off her amazing visit to Washington where she met with just everybody ... and I do mean mean EVERYBODY.

It's a "lobbying cliché" that Buffalo and Syracuse get way more in aid from our state capital than we do. Whether it's AIM aid (Aid and Incentives to Municipalities) or transportation dollars for Region 4, the gravy train of money heading west down the Thruway has a history of being stingy when it passes through the Flour City.

For years, this was blamed on the local legislative delegation's inability to "get along" like Buffalo's bunch, but the days of petty squabbling among our elected officials is pretty much over. Now, we have the Lieutenant Governor leading the pack. We've got long time Assemblyman David Gantt as the Transportation Chair in the Assembly. Senator Joe Robach in the majority of the Senate and as new Transportation Chair there. And, Assemblyman Joe Morelle is celebrating his 23rd year of service and now serving as Majority Leader of that auspicious body.

These are some heavy hitters.

And we will see all of them, today on our whirlwind visit. We've made the trek to Albany for almost a decade now – eight years -- and serve our area well by advocating for the top issues and initiatives from a cross section of the community. It's not just economic development issues either – there's always a human services component to the agenda as well. The current as is a $2.8 million ask for child-care funding.

Sandy Parker has provided leadership for the group that's hard to match. She spends a lot of time working with Coalition members to identify individual priorities. Next, the group comes together to review the draft agenda and hone it to a focused agenda. Then, there's a meeting with the legislative delegation to win their support and finally this trip to Albany.

It's pretty intense, and all comes down to today -- Monday, March 3rd -- when we travel to Albany with our community hat in our hand. And, if I sound like I'm name-dropping -- I am. This is big.

We start off the day with a noon meeting with the Governor's Economic Development/Budget Staff comprised of a whole host of big names. Check it out. There's Catherine Durand, Deputy Budget Director; Andrew Kennedy, Assistant Deputy Secretary for Economic Development; Basil Seggos, Deputy Secretary for Environment; Ian Rosenblum, Deputy Secretary for Education; and Ana Liss, Empire Fellow to Howard Glaser, Director of State Operations and Senior Policy Advisor to Governor.

From there we head over to meet with Senate Majority Leader Skelos and our Senate Delegation including Senators Gallivan, Maziarz, Nozzolio, Ranzenhofer and Robach.

Then, it's over to Assembly Speaker Silver's Office for time with him hosted by Majority Leader Joe Morelle and Assembly Members Harry Bronson and David Gantt.

The idea behind all of this has strange roots. Bob Brown, former Business Manager for Laborers Local 435 was the catalyst that got it started when he said, "Let's quit fighting each other and go down there together and bring home the bacon. Once we get back here we can fight over it all we want – but until we bring it home, there's nothing to fight over."

Smart words. It has led to a unique partnership among business and labor along with top elected officials, our major educational institutions and employers -- all in the best interests of the community.

Ms. Parker at RBA took his advice and with other forward thinking people pulled together this incredible group. As Executive Director of UNICON – Unions and Businesses United in Construction – I was asked to join to bring some input from the construction community, so vital to the community as a whole.

Sometimes though, it's frustrating work -- everyone else is down there trying to get money for their community too. But the successes large and small make up for it. It's just one more example of what can be accomplished when everyone works together, to make the Greater Rochester Community all it can and should be.